Marijuana Still Divides California

Article excerpt

Despite renewed efforts to shut down the nation's most famous
medicinal marijuana club, a gold stenciled pot leaf remains boldly
emblazoned across its store front faade and traffic is as brisk as
ever.

Upstairs, patrons with a physicians' recommendation buy various
grades of marijuana cigarettes, or baked goods, and consume them in
a
setting that's more like a disco than a doctor's office.

The mood is relaxed and confident, seasoned by months of legal
challenge that show no sign of letting up. Last week, a California
bid to close the club immediately was denied, but a full hearing is
slated for June.
As inconclusive as the cat-and-mouse game has been, many experts
say the battle made a definitive point: America remains unable to
have an adult conversation about marijuana.
"Marijuana sits on the San Andreas fault of contemporary American
culture," says Eric Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice
Policy Foundation in Washington. "It represents conflict between
parents and children, the establishment versus the anti-
establishment, Democrats and Republicans and traditional values as
opposed to the values of the 1960s." All of that has prevented
development of a coherent policy, he says.
It's been 18 months since California voters nudged the door open
to easier marijuana use, a move that has spawned well-financed
efforts to do the same in several other states. Yet questions about
marijuana's medical role and whether an expansion of such usage
would
worsen the nation's overall drug problem, particularly among teens,
remain more in the realm of partisan polemics than in rational
consideration, say some analysts.
Instead, what the public sees is a protracted, costly public fight
between pot clubs and government that is more about scoring points
than clarifying issues, says Mark Kleiman, a drug-policy expert at
the University of California at Los Angeles. He criticizes pot clubs
like the one in San Francisco for goading government into action
with
activity not sanctioned by the California initiative. He's just as
harsh on state and federal authorities, who he says have
misrepresented marijuana's medical value and discouraged research
that might provide some facts.
Public opinion and government policy seem somewhat at odds. While
75 percent of Americans oppose legalization of marijuana for
personal
use, nearly 70 percent say it should be permissible for medical
purposes.
Voter sanction
In 1996, 56 percent of Californians voted to allow possession and
cultivation of marijuana for medical uses. That same year, 65
percent Arizona voters passed an even broader measure, though it was
later overturned by the state legislature.
But the Clinton administration and others know that pot is the
most commonly used illegal drug in the US, and they are concerned
that anything that eases its availability to any segment of the
population will encourage broader use. …